Wilkinson Scimitar 6 (Schizoid Musiclander)

[rgand]

This thing is way beyond cool! What fine work. Thumbs-up! :icon_thumright:

 

[Logrinn]

I too have to chime in and say; what sensationally cool stuff you conjure up. Absolutely amazing!

 

[Axkoa]

That's amazing...

But Pete. It's not green?

 

[Fat Pete]

Thanks for the kind comments all!

That's amazing...

But Pete. It's not green?

Hehe - most of my guitars aren't green, but... actually this one is a bit green - it's ocean turquoise metallic (a very cool colour that Warmoth should offer IMHO). It just refuses to photograph and insists on coming out plain old blue.

 

[Fat Pete]

As you fine people are being so kind about my peculiar self-indugences, I'll push my luck a bit further. I wouldn't normally share this stuff but I thought I'd have a dig around and look out some of the design steps that led to the final result. My drawing board approach is pseudo engineering drawing, sometimes 'enhanced' with fountain fills and the occasional bitmap. None of your photo-realistic stuff here I'm afraid.

Early nitty-gritty:

Scratchplate development. Some elements were there from the start, some arrived much later - details like the way the lower horn is the same shape as the part above the bridge (and the thick end of the headstock plate). Some - the weird scooped-out bits - just seem to have appeared from nowhere.

Headstock and plate. No memory of top left and it deserves to be forgotten. The 'Scimitar' name first came from the control area of the scratchplate (I think) which is a bit scimitar-ish - the sword, not the obscure British car at the start of the thread. That led to the idea of a likewise scimtar-ish shaped headstock - the lower left 2.

The design required Steinberger 'gearless' tuners, like these:

I very nearly actually went with this design and had prepared drawings to send to Warmoth for a quote.

I decided against it because I wasn't 100% convinced about the functionality of the Steinbergers, their price (Stew Mac still had them at the time for about $100 - but nowhere in Europe), lack of spares availability and the fact that if I didn't like them I couldn't just slap a regular set on. Given that I also wasn't that crazy about the headstock aesthetically either, I went with the Arrow. (Footnote: as of fairly recently, Kluson have started making the original style stepped Firebird 'banjo' tuners - maybe when I build the tobacco burst BK version, I'll re-visit.)

Finally, a couple of full guitar mock-ups. Early:

Almost as built:

Threatened gallery post will be up very shortly...

 

[BigSteve22]

.....11 months of solid work. In all that time barely a second has passed when I have not been researching, measuring, pondering and several other ings, about exactly where the strap buttons should be.

Today I ignored all that, just drilled a couple of holes and screwed the suckers in.

There comes a time during the life of every project where it becomes necessary to shoot the engineer and get on with production  :laughing7:

Like Kevin said, it must have been that time, because:
Bravo! Absolutely awesome work Frank! Another true beauty, I'm in awe. PLEASE don't take 11 months to post more pix.
:yourock:

 

[Ace Flibble]

I'll take 5. :icon_thumright:

 

[chapogrelo]

Hey,
Could you tell us more about your threaded insert for your scratchplates? What did you use?

 

[Fat Pete]

Hey,
Could you tell us more about your threaded insert for your scratchplates? What did you use?

I couldn't say very specifically as it's probably nearly 2 years since I bought them and searching for 'threaded' in my emails didn't bring up any relevant results. Broadly speaking though, they're this flush fitting sort:

I think I got stainless steel ones (with sharper-looking threads) - M3 internal.

If you're a competent person, ignore the following - but just in case you can be a klutz like me...

If I was doing this again, on a finished body, I'd start the holes with a forstner bit (a brad point might do the job if you have one that leaves a reliable centre) to create a shallow rebate just wider than the maximum overall diameter of the insert, and then drill the correctly-sized holes to the required depth. This way, the cutting outside thread doesn't touch your finish and try to pull it off in large, upsetting pieces.

What I actually did was: test first on a hidden area with the specified bit size (sensible). Found that the inserts did indeed want to pull the finish off, so just used a larger bit (not sensible). The inserts then went in without hurting the finish but, because of the oversized holes, were able to wander off-centre enough that the scratchplate couldn't be fitted. In my case I just had another scratchplate made with the screw hole positions adjusted. If you were using off-the-shelf parts, you wouldn't have that luxury and would be looking at dowelling and re-drilling etc.

I'll add that obviously the holes need to be nice and perpendicular - use a drill press if possible.

I also made a little jig - just a block with a hole through - to make sure the inserts went in straight. This would probably have been less necessary with the right size holes!